Trip Log: Algonquin Park: Rock Lake, October 5-9, 2017

Thanksgiving in Algonquin!  This is usually the trip I look forward too the most since it's a long weekend, the weather is pretty decent, the colours are usually still good, and we eat lots and lots of good food.

This year there were a few snags.  A friend from high school was getting married on the Saturday, my mum had a doctors appointment on the Friday, and the leaves were at peak, so we knew it was going to be really busy in Algonquin.

I'd booked the site from the Thursday to the Monday, not knowing any of this because I'd booked it in April.  This was originally the reservation for our opening weekend trip, but ice out was later than hoped for.  Getting weekends off is a challenge for us, so I couldn't just rebook for the next weekend, so I extended the trip and booked Thanksgiving.

So with all this stuff going on, we managed to make it up to Rock Lake on Thursday night, (me, the kids, my parents and their dog.  Chris was going to work, then go to the wedding and come up Sunday with Biscuit) just as it was getting dark.  it was a bit chilly so the kids stayed in the truck.  We were camping with my parents in their tent trailer, so we set about setting up.  And hit a few more snags.

2017 was a really rainy summer and my parents hadn't used their trailer at all.  They opened it up to air it out a week or so before we left, but didn't do a full inspection inside.  It smelled pretty musty, and there was a bit of mould on the wood of the cabinets.  We managed to scrub everything down and then realized we should probably wash the dishes that were in the cupboards.  That's when we realized we didn't have the dish sink.  We ended up just having salads in wraps (Squatch had a peanut butter and banana wrap), and Mum and Dad would head home after the doctor appointment to get the gear they thought had been in the trailer but evidently wasn't (we were also missing most of the pots and utensils.)

Foggy morning on Rock Lake

We went to bed early, and the next morning, got up and had some bagels and oatmeal before Mum and Dad headed out.  The kids and I had brought books to read, and spent some time on a bench by the beach reading, and went out for a paddle down the river to Whitefish Lake.  It was pretty windy so we didn't venture too far.  We also went for a little hike down to the rail trail part of the Booth's Rock Trail to take some pictures. I took the kids to the visitor centre for lunch, then we hiked the Spruce Bog Trail on the way back.

When we got back to camp, we read some more.  We had brought hammocks but our site really didn't have many trees for hanging them.  Maybe we could have gotten one up, but that would have just caused fights so we went back down to the beach with our books instead.

Fall Colours - Rock Lake Algonquin Park

When Mum and Dad returned, we made dinner of chinese noodles (and something else???)  We didn't have a fire that night.  I think we were all pretty tired and there were a lot of noisy neighbours.

Saturday morning, we got up and had bagels and oatmeal again.  We planned to go out for a paddle, find an empty campsite and cook up some veggie burgers and veggie sausages on Mum's biostove but the wind was still up, and it looked like it was going to rain so we stayed at camp other than a quick drive into Whitney to get a few groceries and put some gas in the car.  The night before, when I'd been dumping the dish water into the outhouse, I heard a thunk sound, and realized I'd accidentally left the dish cloth in the water...and it was the only dish cloth we had for the weekend, so we had to pick up a box of j-cloths.

Old Rail Trail - near Rock Lake

This day was kind of a blur of frustration.  There were so many people at Rock Lake, not just campers (one site had two 30ft trailers on it, which is a no no) and we started to feel a bit claustrophobic.  One site clearly had been chosen as the gathering site for a large family, as they had brought all the picnic tables from their other sites and basically created what looked like a cafeteria.  There was probably seating for 30 people. A couple kids (couldn't have been more than 2 or 3) drove around the campground all day in a little battery operated Jeep.  This was nerve-wracking because they had no adult with them, and they weren't looking where they were going.  I spent the whole day worried someone would back out of a site and not see them.  This was even worse on the Monday when people were trying to get out of sites with big trailers.

One of our neighbours had set up a screen tent with a movie projector inside so their kids could watch movies, and they stayed up all night talking loudly.  All weekend, there were tons of day-trip people around since the leaves were at peak.

Relics of Algonquin's History

We've decided that next year, we are going to try and get into the back country for Thanksgiving.  Yes it's nice to have the heater in the trailer but the noise and chaos and crowds really took away from our enjoyment of the weekend.

Dinner on Saturday was spaghetti with garlic bread.  Since we didn't make the veggie burgers or sausages, we cut them up and added them to the sauce, which the kids did not like.  It ended up being too much though, so we probably should have only used one of each.  We did have a fire that night, but for some reason, our fire pit had been cleaned out and dug down so it ended up being so deep we couldn't feel any heat coming off of it.

The next morning, it was sunny and less windy so we took the canoes for a short paddle down the river again.   We weren't sure when Chris would be coming, but we decided to head out and explore the Old Rail Trail Bike Trail and at least get to the bridge at Whitefish.  It's a nice trail and we ended up going a bit further than the bridge before Mum and Dad decided to head back to camp.  The kids and I continued on to see if we could get to the campsite on Whitefish that, on the map, looks like it's right at the side of the trail.  We found it easily.  It's not an ideal site, but it has a nice beach, and I suppose if you were canoe camping late in the season, and the weather turned (bad wind or the lake started to ice up) you could just portage back down the railway.  It was a pretty small site, with maybe one tent site.  There is a fully closed in outhouse rather than a thunder box, but you have to cross the trail and go up the hill on the other side to get to it.

Sunset at Rock Lake - Algonquin

When we got back to camp, Chris had arrived with Biscuit. I went with him to get his additional car permit and asked the lady at the office if it would be okay if he parked at the site until the rush of day trippers was over.  We had three cars now that he was here, and knew we would have to park one at the over flow parking area, but since that parking lot was full, we couldn't very well use it.  Even if a spot did open up, we would end up blocking someone in.  The first cars were parked up against the tree line, and the next row was basically parking a few feet behind them.  I kept thinking people were going to be coming back from doing the hike and then would have to wait for the owners of the car behind them to come back so they could actually get out.  The lady said she thought it would be okay but the Rangers might not have the same opinion.  Luckily none came around and we were able to move the car over before it became an issue.

 We sat down by the lake for a while then got ready to make our Thanksgiving dinner.  Since we weren't making a turkey, it wouldn't be such an all day process.  We made potatoes in foil, carrots in foil, turnip, brussels sprouts, stuffing and gravy.  We were all stuffed afterwards and enjoyed a nice fire.  Dad and Chris got a good size one going so we could actually feel some heat coming off it.  It did feel a little awkward though since the people on the site backing onto ours had set their tent up over the border of the two sites and so they were very close to our fire pit.

Beach at Whitefish campsite

Canoe campsite on Whitefish

For our last day, we had potato and pepper hash for breakfast, as well as bagels.  We took our plates down to the picnic table at the beach and enjoyed the beautiful weather before it was time to pack up.

As always, Thanksgiving in Algonquin was beautiful.  Evidently many people agree with this because it's gotten busier and busier every year.  No matter how many times I tell myself to just ignore the people around us, or the dozens of rules being broken, or the people walking right through our site, it's not always easy to just shrug off.  Canoe camping next year might be the way to go.

Trip Log: Algonquin Park: Rock Lake, May 4-6, 2015

May the Force Be With You!  I guess the Force was with us, because things fell into place for us on this trip.  We thought we were going to be delayed on departure day (May 4th) because Bubbie's school concert band was supposed to have an event all day and she couldn't miss it.  Luckily for us, something got messed up and at the last minute, it got delayed 2 weeks!  Yay!

We'd planned to eat lunch at the campsite but we were all hungry, so when we stopped at Two Rivers Store for drinks, we handed out the sandwiches/pizza buns and ate on the way.  The weather was a bit grim looking, with grey skies and the odd sprinkle of rain but we were hopeful we'd get set up before it got really wet.

We managed to get up to our campsite at around 1pm, and it was just starting to spit rain.  We put the tent trailer up by throwing a tarp over it so we could then stay dry while we raised the roof and pulled out the ends.  At one point after everything was raised, Dad realized he couldn't find the keys so he could get into the little storage area so he could get the two support bars he'd forgotten to get out at the start.  We searched everywhere and eventually started to wonder if they'd been on the roof of the trailer before we cranked it up.  Turned out they were in his back pocket the whole time.

We retreated inside to play Star Wars games to celebrate.  Mum had bought the kids Star War's Day gifts…Bubbie made a comment about not understanding the big deal, because it wasn't like Christmas.  I nearly kicked her out into the rain.

Biscuit was so excited to be there, he was driving us nuts with his need to get out and explore.  We ended up walking him around in the rain (a steady moderately heavy rain now) so we could see how many other sites were in use.  There weren't many, maybe a dozen, if that, at least in the electrical section.  Everyone was spread out, so even though Rock Lake doesn't offer the best privacy, we didn't feel crowded at all.

Mum and I started supper around 4:30.  In honour of this special day we had Bobba Fett-agetti, Endor Salad (caesar salad,) Sarlacc Bread (garlic bread) and Yoda Soda (Mountain Dew.)  For dessert we had Wookie Cookies,  and Exploding Deathstar Cookies.  Mum and Dad offered to do the dishes while Chris and I took the kids out for a paddle.

Now, this is our first time really paddling so early after the ice is out.  The lake was mostly calm, and the wind was minimal, but I still had horrible thoughts of us tipping, and kept trying to get Chris to take us closer to shore.  Chris kept us going straight down the middle of the lake.  And here's where Chris and I have our only canoe difference.  We work really well together in the canoe.  He prefers to paddle on the left, I prefer the right.  We share the load pretty evenly on portages.  We just canoe well together, but he is very much about getting to the end destination and therefore it's straight down the middle of the lake, every time.  Where as I like to go fairly close to the shore.  Not only can we maybe see wildlife, but you actually feel like you're moving, where as out in the middle of the lake it can often feel like you're expending a lot of effort for very little reward.  When we were coming back from High Falls, trying to get back to our site at Achray, paddling into the wind, it might have felt less like we were standing still if we were twenty feet closer to shore.  Just saying.    I know there are times when you are trying to make your distances, or there's a limited amount of time, but when there isn't (like this time) why can't we just explore?  Ugh!

Anyway, when we turned around, we realized the wind had picked up a bit and was now in our faces.  Not bad, but the waves were just at the point where the tops collapse, not quite white caps though.  We made it home without incident and then decided to drive West on Highway 60 and look for moose.  It was about 7:30.  We saw 2 before we even got off Rock Lake Road, and a total of 8 more that night (for a total of 10 that day.  We saw 2 just before we got to the West gate on our way into the park)  After a quick stop at Fisherman's Point for pictures, we headed back to camp.

Since the campground office closed at 4:30 we didn't get any wood, but everyone was pretty tired anyway so we just went to bed.  Our only fairly close neighbours stayed up late talking but it was pretty quiet.  Lots of spring peepers could be heard as well as the odd loon call.  Just a relaxing night in Algonquin Park.

Day 2

Breakfast time at Rock Lake

I was up pretty early, but I didn't check my phone to see the actual time.  I'd been up to go to the bathroom at around 4 and the moon was brilliant, shining on the water.  By the time it got light out, there was lots of fog on the lake.  Biscuit and I walked…a lot.  All around the camp ground, to the boat launch (a quick detour to the garbages to dispose of his morning business) then down to the non-electrical sites.  There were hardly any people there, maybe 3 sites in use?  We got back and still nobody was up, so we walked some more.  I don't think the others got up until 9:30.

Coffee was the first priority, then breakfast.  One-Eyed Buffalos, bacon, potato and pepper hash and maple baked beans (we forgot to cook the beans…again.  That can has been in my mum's camp food bin for like 3 years now.)  After cleaning up, we headed to the East gate looking for moose.  We only saw one.  Chris and I had planned to hike the portage trail into Pinetree Lake but he also wanted to do the Booth's Rock Trail again, and we wanted to go canoeing.  We opted to wait on the portage trail.  Actually we were all originally supposed to hike to Pinetree, but mum had hurt her ankle and was having enough trouble walking around the campground.

Chris and Biscuit on top of Booth's Rock

While the kids went with my parents looking for more moose, Chris and I headed back to Rock Lake to hike Booth's Rock.  There was a tour bus at the office and we thought we should get on the trail quick before a load of people headed out on it too.  Biscuit is a little unpredictable in his desire to protect us, and having to stay ahead of a bunch of people when there's that much tough up hill would have killed me.  As it was, I thought I was going to have a stroke trying to keep up with Chris.  I finally let him carry my camera bag (which he later claimed to barely notice he was carrying…it weighs like 30lbs!  Jerk.)

Time for a rest - Booth's Rock Trail

As it turned out, we only saw 2 other people on the trail, two men at the very top.  We explored the remains of the estate, and ventured a little further along the shore to check out the back country canoe campsite near the ruins.  It doesn't look like a bad site, a big fairly level spot near the fire pit, but the landing looked quite rocky.  That being said, it would probably be a good site for those very late season trips where you might wake up to an iced over lake and have to hike out.

Very glad we were going down these

Biscuit was pretty good about not dragging Chris along, until we got within sight of the car then he nearly decapitated himself pulling so hard on the leash.  He loves the car, if you couldn't guess.

We got back to camp, had a quick lunch of crackers, cheese, meat, apples, a fruit tray and leftover cookies. Mum offered to take the kids out for a little paddle, to check out the river.  While Chris was helping push them off, Biscuit, who hates water, ran right in trying to get into the canoe!  I guess he likes canoeing more than he hates being wet.

I walked the garbage down, taking Biscuit with me, and we detoured to the boat launch.  I figured we could wait for mum and the kids then drop off the bag.  When they pulled up to the little dock, Biscuit again tried to get in the boat, and when I kept him back, he retaliated by peeing on the garbage bag.  I almost got caught with it too but I managed to jump up quickly.

When we got back to camp, we relaxed while waiting for mum to return.  They'd headed out with Squatch in the middle, mum in stern and Bubbie in the bow.  I kind a figured the kids would tire easily and mum would be left paddling alone, but when they came into view we realized Bubbie was in the stern, Squatch was in the bow and Mum was in the middle getting a free ride!

Mum getting a free ride

After that we didn't leave camp until it was time to go home.  The kids pretty much just paddled on their own.  Mum had showed them how to j-stroke and do some other things.  They stayed close to shore but they were out there almost all night except for a break for dinner  and to let Chris take biscuit for a little paddle.

Dinner tonight was in honour of Cinqo de Mayo.  Tacos, quesadillas, southwest salad, and two types of tex-mex rice.  We were all stuffed afterward…okay, the kids still had room in their dessert stomach (kids have a second stomach like cows do…but kids use theirs for desserts)  We had a fire going so they toasted marshmallows, and tried toasting strawberries dipped in marshmallow fluff.  It worked out okay, not as pretty as the pictures online, but they tasted good.

As we made dinner, we kept seeing this odd group of canoes.  Two people would paddle from the non-electrical section, to the river and then return a few minutes later with 2 canoes each pulling another canoe, so four in total.  This happened 3 or 4 times.  We finally realized that when Chris and I came back from our hike earlier and saw lots and lots of tents in the non-electrical section, it was probably a school group and they would likely be departing from there for a canoe trip, hence bringing the canoes to the campground rather than hauling all the group with their gear (and no cars) to the boat launch.  They were a bit rowdy, but not bad.  We heard a few excited shouts as we sat around the fire that night but if it was a school group, I'm actually glad to know they were so excited to be there.  And I admit, I was really jealous.  Why didn't our high school have an outers club or wilderness skills class when I was a teen?  My mum did in high school, and the school our kids will be going to has things like that.  Ugh!

Mum had brought the game Ultimate Werewolf: One Night.  The kids love this game, and were really excited to play, so after the fire was put out, everyone else played while I lay down with Biscuit.  He was pretty wiped out from all the hiking and walking around the camp ground he'd done.  Squatch had also run around the campground roads with him quite a bit, and while we'd gone looking for moose, he ran from side to side in the back seat, popping his head out the window on each side for a minute. (As I'm typing this, he's passed out on the couch.)

While mum and the kids were waiting for us to go in to play Werewolf, mum gave the kids each a scratch ticket.  We always play a "how many moose do you think we'll see" game when we go to Algonquin, and Bubbie won the first day's game. The ticket was her prize.  She won $75!  While Chris and I had been hiking, they'd stopped at Tea Lake Dam for snacks, and a bird had pooped on her hand…you know how people say that's supposed to be good luck?  Apparently it's true.  Squatch was not impressed.

We all slept better the second night, and yet again I got up before everyone else.  Biscuit and I walked some more, but this time, he put is paw down after an hour or so and just sat in the middle of the road, so we headed back to camp and sat for a while.  He desperately wanted back in the trailer to sleep but I didn't want to wake everyone up.  Mum got up shortly after that so I let Biscuit have his way, and mum and I took the canoe out for a paddle.  We checked out some of the cottages on Rock Lake, went up the river but detoured off to where the river passed right by the campground near the outhouses.  We tried to go further but there was a beaver dam and neither of us felt like getting our feet wet when the water was so cold, so we headed back.

Dad had the coffee on by then, and Chris, Biscuit and the kids had walked down to the boat launch hoping to see us but we hadn't gone that far.  We kept breakfast simple, just bagels and coffee/hot chocolate.

While me and mum and dad were packing up, The kids took Biscuit for a little paddle, then brought him back and went out alone again.  Chris took the GoPro and filmed them, when they explored the river section mum and I had gone to earlier.

Nobody wanted to leave.  Other than a bit of rain the first day, we'd had a great trip, but as always it was far too short.

Trip Log: Algonquin Park: Rock Lake, August 28-30, 2011

Still trying to catch up on old trip logs.  As my actual notes on this trip weren't very detailed, it's not a very extensive report, and I don't know where the pictures are…

Mum had so much fun on our trip earlier in this year, but her only issue had been with the tent. Her and dad had slept in a tent they'd gotten from my brother, a little 3 man just barely big enough for their air mattress.  We'd found a good deal on an 8 person tent and picked it up only to realize later that there was a spot on the seam where the floor and tent wall meet where the stitching had come undone.  It was easy for mum to fix up though but we didn't actually notice it until we set up at Rock Lake on this trip.

We arrived around 6:30 and quickly got the tent set up and had dinner. BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, chicken and some minute rice.  There was a beautiful sunset that night.  The kids and I were able to get some good shots of the fading light hitting the face of Booth's Rock. 

Getting a fire going that night was difficult.  I think we bought 2 bags of wood and the first one must have been a bit wet (as per usual) but eventually we got it going and the kids toasted marshmallows.

It was pretty cold in the night. I remember I spent most of the time making sure the kids were covered up (they weren't cold apparently but I was worried they were and so didn't sleep)  Bubbie and I got up and went for a walk before everyone else got up.  Breakfast was eggs, bacon, toast and baked beans for the adults…the kids had Cap'n Crunch.

After breakfast, the kids and I attended a kids nature presentation at the Visitor's centre about Algonquin in winter then we went back to camp for lunch, then back to the visitor's centre for a presentation about how to cook over a camp fire.  After that hiked part of the Booth's Rock Trail.  We went backwards, and spent a lot of time exploring the shoreline of Rock Lake where we could get off the trail.  We found a really nice little beach and rocky area that would be perfect for picnics.

We found walking the trail backwards was tough.  At that point, I hadn't done it the proper way, and now that I have, I think doing it backwards was a huge mistake.  Going the proper way, you climb hills (steep, rocky ones) but it's in fairly short bursts.  Going backwards, you basically climb about 200 steps which was really hard on the knees.  We didn't realize it at the time, but we didn't even make it to the top.  We got to a spot where you could see out over the lake (actually close to the top…another minute would have gotten us there) and had our granola bar and water.

When we got back the kids played at the beach and we got a good fire going.  It must have been the only bag of fire wood we've ever bought in a park that was dry.  It was the camp fire we always mention as the best ever.  Awesome bed of coals that would have been perfect for cooking over, never had to fan it with a lid from one of the food bins.  It was pretty damn epic.

This was the trip I'd bought the Jiffy Pop holder on, and it worked really well.  I was so excited about it.

We got some new neighbours that night.  A family arrived at the site behind and one over from us.They had a trailer full of gear and the first thing they did was steal a picnic table from an empty site.  They had 3 or 4 kids, I can't remember how many, but everyone was loud and running around like crazy.  The thing that drove us crazy though was that after they got set up (they'd arrived pretty late, like 8pm) they piled into their van and drove to the comfort station for showers (this was at about 11pm now) with the trailer still hitched up.  It rattled like crazy all around the campground, and down the road.  Then half an hour later they came rattling back to camp, and left their van lights shining into our tent for half an hour as they got everyone ready for bed.  The kids still refuse to go back to the non-electrical section of Rock Lake because of these people.  I mean seriously, they'd been there 2 hours, did they really all need to shower?  And couldn't they have been a little more careful about not disturbing other campers?  The kids were yelling and fighting, the adults were yelling at the kids…it was super annoying.

We got up fairly early and packed up.  It was raining but thankfully dad had put a tarp over the tent the night before.  This actually helped with the night chill as the tent didn't feel as damp even with the rain. We had breakfast, did the Peck Lake trail, then went to the Tea Lake dam for lunch.  Dad hauled out the BBQ and we had hot dogs.  

You know how on a camping trip, there will be a memory that stands out?  On this trip, the rude campers was one memory, the other one happened as we ate lunch.  As we were sitting down at a picnic table to eat, I asked if the bun bag was empty so we could put garbage in it.  Mum says "Fun bag?" and I started laughing so hard I nearly choked on my hot dog.  Every time I tried to explain what was so funny, I'd start laughing again.  A few weeks before, Chris and I had gone to a wedding and there was an older woman in a very revealing dress.  Chris's brother made a comment about Granny fun bags which at the time I hadn't found funny, but for some reason now it seemed hilarious.  Now we always have a "fun bag" on a camping trip.  It started out being a name we called the bag designated for garbage, but eventually became the bag my mum carries with her full of prizes and little treats for the kids.   

Looking back on this trip now, it's kind of funny.  The loud campers have become something we talk about at almost every camping trip when you hear someone being loud at night.  "Yeah, but at least they aren't as bad as those people from our first trip to Rock Lake."  And they weren't the only campers who still stick in our minds.  The people directly behind us was a couple, maybe in their forties.  Every meal they would bring out a checkered table cloth, a candle and at dinner, a bottle of wine.  It looked very romantic and sweet.

It was also the first trip where Chris wasn't there for even part of it.  It kind of forced me to do some of the things I'd always relied on him to do before.

I'm going to apologize now for the lack of pictures.  I have pictures of this trip I just can't find them so I'm posting the log as is, and will add them in a few days…I hope!

Trip Log: Rock Lake to Pen Lake - Algonquin Park - June 22-23, 2013

Our first trip into the interior of Algonquin...okay so we only went one lake in, and it was a short portage, but it's a step.  This trip was kind of a test, just Chris and I, to see how we fared with gear..what were we forgetting?  What didn't we need?

So, we got up early, 7am (I know a lot of experienced campers get up in the middle of the night and head out so they can get to the put in when the permit office opens, but in our defence, Chris works nights.  I didn't think asking him to start a trip on an hours sleep was very fair) and got our permit by about 10:45.  We were expecting the bugs to be bad, but pulling into the parking lot at the put in, and seeing the mosquitoes swarming the car didn't seem like a good start.

Chris unloaded the canoe while I carried the packs and loose gear down to the water.  Once he had the canoe in, I held it against the dock while he put the packs into it.  I had mosquitoes going down the back of my pants, up the sleeves of my sweater, and I kept thinking maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe we should have waited a few weeks...

Once we were on the water, it was fine.  From the boat launch, go to the left.  There's a sign across the river, to the right is Whitefish Lake, to the right, Rock Lake.

We made good time, and though it started to drizzle about 20 minutes into the paddle, we were too excited to care.  I've camped at Rock Lake before, in the campgrounds, but everything looks so different from out on the water.  The buildings that line the right bank were actually mostly very nice little cottages, not run down old shacks like I thought they were when looking at them from the opposite shore.  We both decided we were super jealous of the people that get to use them.

Finding the portage into Pen Lake was pretty easy.  Chris speculated over each cliff we saw, wondering if they'd be good cliffs to jump from. We obviously didn't stop so he could swim down at each of them and see if there were rocks jumbled a foot below the surface of the water, but I'm pretty sure it's on his to-do list.

The bugs hit us again once we got to the portage, so we didn't take the time to head down the little paths to the water falls.  I wish we had.  I didn't end up taking many pictures on the whole trip and now that I'm home (and safe from mosquitoes) I'm kicking myself for being such a wuss.

It was hot, humid and mucky on the portage.  I'd made the mistake of putting my lifejacket on under the backpack so I wouldn't have to carry it, which proved to be a big mistake.  With the lifejacket on, I couldn't get the pack straps to sit right and the right one kept sliding down my arm.  With Chris close behind  with the canoe, I knew I couldn't just stop (or I'd end up getting cracked in the back of the head).  Finally I let him go by me.  At this point, both straps had slid down and were caught in the crook of my elbows so I had no choice but to stop and bounce it back into place.

By the time we got to the end (it's only 375 meters) I was thinking this whole interior camping thing isn't as awesome as I'd been led to believe.  Maybe I'd be okay with just sticking to campground camping from now on.  Then Chris points and says, "look, cow moose with a baby." and yep, in the small marsh about 40 feet from the put in, there was a moose with a baby.  My doubts  about canoe camping were erased in like .4 seconds and I was back to "this is the most awesome thing ever!"

I photographed them while Chris went back for the other pack.  I figured I'd get some pictures then go back and help with the last of the loose items, but I didn't think the moose would be there too long.  I guess I'm used to the ones on the side of the highway...they are there for a little while until someone drives by honking a horn or a motorcycle goes by and the moose takes off.  After we got the stuff into the canoe, we paddled a bit closer and they couldn't have cared less.

So, the plan was to find the site mentioned in a trip log as having a sandy beach, since I'm not really big on just jumping into deep water...I have a fear of weeds...and snapping turtles...and muskie.  Okay that sounds dumb, I know, but I grew up working in my grandfather's bait shop, and heard all kinds of stories...most of which probably weren't true.  Since there were several other parties heading into Pen Lake behind us, we paddled quick to find the site...hoping it wasn't already taken.  We found the site easily enough, but it was very closed in and all I kept thinking was there would be no chance of a breeze to keep the bugs at bay.  So we moved on.

We spotted a point with a clump of big pines and what looked like a sandy beach nearby, but upon drawing closer realized the site was already taken.  There was one of  those coleman brown and beige tents up high on the hill, the tent Chris and I had almost bought, but it blended in so well, we didn't see it until we got really close.  A few minutes further down the lake, Chris spotted another moose on the western shore, with two babies.  We detoured over and photographed them.  The mother seemed pretty determined to gorge herself and barely stopped eating to look at us, though she was careful to move herself so she was between us and the babies.

We crossed the lake again and ended up taking the last site on the east side.  The rocky shore made unloading a bit of a pain, but we managed and set up the tent and tarp.  At first we were going to set up closer to the water between two big trees, but then we looked up and saw a lot of dead branches.  Since the weather was forecasting storms we weren't sure it would be safe.  Having just gone through a bad storm in Killarney, Chris was more worried about the tent blowing into the lake than the possibility of branches falling on the tent.

The site was kind of...rough?  I don't know how to describe it.  I've read a lot of trip logs and watched a lot of youtube videos of people's canoe trips and all the sites seem to have these benches around the fire pit, lots of open space...this one was all hill with no where to sit in front of the fire pit and this weird tripod thing someone had rigged up over top of the fire with branches and bright green string.  I'm sure they thought it was clever, but it just managed to look kind of junky.  We didn't take it down, but I couldn't help but wish it wasn't there.

After we set up, we sat on one of the rocks overhanging the shore and ate some snacks (apples, kielbasa and crackers, and Chris pointed out that he could still see the cow moose and babies across the lake.  Then he pointed a little further to the left and said he saw another moose there.  So we got back into the canoe with the camera and fishing gear and headed out to see if he was right. My eyes are bad so I couldn't tell if he was just seeing a dark rock or an actual moose.  Turned out he was right...it was a big bull moose with the start of some nice antlers and the loveliest chocolate brown fur.  I'm so used to seeing moose in the spring, when they all look ragged and grey, so this was a nice change.  He didn't stick around once we got closer.

Even from across the lake we could hear the rush of white water from this area, and decided to try and find the first portage that leads to Welcome Lake.  It looked like just a big marsh until we realized there was a section with a good current so we followed that until we got to a rocky pile and couldn't go any further.  Okay we could have.  There was a small sandy mucky spot we could have used to life around the rocks but the problem was, battling against the current was a pain when in most places there was only 2 inches of water.  It was impossible to dig my paddle in and get a good stroke because I'd just sink it into soft sand.  We ended up turning around and heading back to see the mother and twins.

On our way back to the campsite, we noticed a neon green canoe heading down the lake, and as we got closer realized they were clearly making their way to our site.  In fact, when we got there, they were trying to decide the best place to land the canoe until they noticed our tent.  I felt bad.  It would suck to haul all your gear out of the canoe and then realize the site actually was taken.  The two young men in the canoe were from Montreal, and though we couldn't tell them anything about other sites that might be available, we did let them know about the moose across the lake.

I pumped some water then Chris fished from the boat while I paddled toward the portage into Clydegale Lake.  The lake was so calm it was easy and I was able to practice my j-stroke without worrying about waves or wind.  Chris had no luck fishing, but we did run into the guys in the neon green canoe again, and they invited us to coffee in the morning after thanking us for telling them about the moose.  We didn't go, the bugs were so bad the next morning we didn't even make breakfast, but it was nice that they offered.  I always read about that kind of thing in people's trip logs. A lot of the time in the campgrounds, people barely acknowledge you when you walk by.  The only real interaction we have with neighbours is when someone is leaving and they come over and offer us the last of their firewood, or we offer them ours.

I hauled out the vital stove and made bannock and spaghetti for dinner.  Usually at home when I make spaghetti, I never have enough water, and I'd seen online that the easiest way to make it in the back country was to cook the noodles and rehydrate the sauce all at once.  I didn't fill the pot to a crazy high level, but it still ended up being spaghetti soup and had to be boiled down more than I'd thought.  Still it was tasty.  I'd added a bit of garlic powder and italian seasoning to the bannock mix and it was really yummy.  Chris had gotten a good fire going, which helped keep the bugs at bay...there was no breeze at all.  Funny how on our last trip, we were cursing the wind as it kept blowing the tent over, and now we were praying for even a wisp of breeze.

We went to bed around 10:30 and spent the entire night listening to the buzz of what sounded like a billion mosquitoes.  It seriously sounded like we were at a race track, or were being attacked by angry bees.  Even worse, because the tent was so small, it sounded like they were right in our ear all night.  But the worst?  The no-see-ems.  Oh my God. It was super hot but we had to hide in our sleeping bags just to keep from getting bitten all over.  Just when you start to doze off one would bite.  I don't think I fell asleep until 5am.  By 3 I really had to go to the bathroom but there was no force on earth that could get me to get out of the tent into what sounded like a horror-movie swarm of mosquitoes.  I finally got up at 6 and afterwards, took some pictures of the lake.

Early morning on Pen Lake

It looked like  it was going to be a gloomy rainy day, and I hoped it wouldn't rain the whole time we paddled home. The lake was very pretty though, calm and mirror flat, it almost looked haunted with the mist and haze. I crawled back into the tent (the bugs weren't as bad as I'd feared but still pretty horrible) and slept until 9.  By then the sun had come out and it was hot and humid.  We had originally planned to stick around until after lunch, but we were so tired and the bugs were so bad we ended up making tea, skipping breakfast and heading out with some granola bars and Snickers to eat in the canoe.  While chris was rolling the ropes from the tarp he said he counted twelve mosquitoes on the knuckle of his baby finger.  I almost asked him why he thought counting them was a good idea when the smart thing to do would be to swat them...but maybe it was just being so tired that had him losing common sense.

Momma moose and her twins were back out in the bay. (just to the right of the island in the picture...the bull moose was in the bay to the left of the island the day before) so we crossed over and saw them again then headed up the lake.  It was pretty busy on the water.  Lots of people in rental canoes.  We figured a lot of them were day trippers, maybe camped in the Rock Lake campground.

As we neared the portage we both got our bug hats ready, only to find no bugs!  Weird.  Lots of people though.  There was a group of 8 young men just finishing the second leg of their portage.  Chris had thought we'd brought too much, but these guys had 4 canoes loaded down.  They even had 2 big Rubbermaid containers.  I didn't feel so bad after seeing that.  

By the time we got in sight of the Rock Lake campground we were both done in.  No sleep, the heat, and only snacks to fuel us, we just wanted out of the canoe and into the water.  It seemed to take forever.  Luckily, there were no bugs at the boat launch either, so we loaded up, and headed to Pog Lake campground for a quick swim.  I'm not sure if you're supposed to use campground beaches if you aren't staying at that campground, but Rock Lake's beach was over run with geese and baby geese.  Neither of us wanted to get attacked, and the prospect of swimming in an area with that many geese didn't appeal.  We could have gone to the Two Rivers picnic area but were too hot and icky to wait.  We only swam for about 5 minutes, just enough to cool off, then headed to the Two River's store for some lunch and a cold drink.

Despite the bugs it was an awesome trip.  I had three wishes for this trip, hear lots of loons, see moose in a setting that wasn't the side of the road, and camp in the interior.  We managed to do all three at the same time...listened to loons while on our interior campsite watching moose across the lake.  I did learn a few things...

1. Ladies, if you are going to be wearing a bug hat...tie your hair back!  The whole portage, while the pack was sliding down my arms and I was worried about Chris ramming me with the canoe, my hair kept falling in my face.  Trying to hold the paddles and camera bag in one hand while sticking the other hand up the mesh to tuck the strands behind my ears was not easy.  I couldn't see and kept tripping over rocks and roots.

2. Bring some kind of flag or something that you can hang near the water so if your site is sheltered people can tell it's occupied well before getting there, saving fellow campers extra paddling.  Early in the day it's not so bad, but I would hate to be arriving late, paddling all over the lake trying to find an empty site...then get to one that looks empty but isn't, and having to paddle all the way around the other side.

3. Before the trip, we went to Canadian Tire and looked at the bug screens you just hang from a tree.  We both thought they looked kind of flimsy and we'd be okay with just bug hats.  I think if we'd had something like that (wanna look into the parawing backpack tarp/screen thing) we would have eaten breakfast, had dessert after dinner and maybe stayed for lunch.  I had packed some quinoa salad stuff for lunch the second day, but I barely had the patience to boil water for tea that morning.

4. If you are going when bugs are going to be bad, taking food that is super quick to make is the way to go.  Maybe if we'd taken a different stove it wouldn't have been so bad.  I could have left it simmering and walked around as at least when we were moving the bugs weren't as bad, but with the vital stove, I had to sit and keep feeding it sticks.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Vital Stove, it works really well, but you do have to sit and feed it. Also, breakfast was supposed to be oatmeal, but not instant.  I'm not a fan of instant oatmeal, but the thought of getting eaten alive while cooking oats that take 15 minutes to simmer was not appealing.  Not only that, but it would have been messy to clean up.  Scrubbing the pot would have been no fun while fighting off mosquitoes.

5. Interior camping is just as awesome as I'd thought it would be.  Despite my initial misgivings on the portage, it really was a wonderful trip.  We learned a lot, saw so much wildlife.  At one point in the night we heard this noise that sounded like a screeching rooster.  I did some looking online when we got home and we think it might have been an adolescent barred owl.  It sounded like this but more screechy like these baby barred owls.  Chris said it sounded like someone at the next site over was murdering a baby. We also heard loons, wolves and lots of frogs.

I can't wait to do this again, with the kids along...but maybe wait for the bugs to die off a bit...

Trip Log: Rock Lake, Algonquin Park, May3-5, 2013

After checking out all the flooding in Algonquin two weeks ago, we decided to take advantage of the (late) opening of Rock Lake Campground and see how much the water had gone down, and how much damage was done in it's wake.

We got a late start, not arriving at our campsite until about 9:10pm.  We did see 2 moose on the way, but we didn't stop to try and take pictures (one was well after full dark and we wouldn't have gotten a good shot anyway.) Setting up the tent trailer in the dark was a bit of a challenge, made more difficult because we were trying to keep quiet for the other campers.  Once the trailer was up, we made a quick dinner of burgers and headed to bed.

Sun up on Rock Lake...time to fish!

I was up at 5:30 the next morning for a bathroom run, and figured I'd grab my camera, head for the beach, and scout out some good spots for sun rise shots.  I was out there for an hour playing around before the sun popped over the horizon.  The lake was almost like glass and I eagerly set up for my first shot when a motor boat came buzzing up the far shore, cutting right through the perfect reflection.  I took a few shots anyway, then waited 10 more minutes for the ripples to calm down...and just as they did, two more boats puttered through and stopped in the middle of the area to fish.  I guess since there was still ice on the lake for the actual trout opening weekend, it was to be expected.

Breakfast was pretty basic; Red River cereal and bagels.  Then we headed out and hiked the Beaver Pond Trail.  It took us longer than the posted time because we stopped a lot and took pictures.  It was fun though.  The kids climbed every glacial erratic along the trail, and I got to goof around with my new wide angle lens and take some shots where the perspective is off.  Lots of fun.  Disappointingly we didn't see any beaver on the hike.  We'd really hoped we would since they'd be out repairing their damns and lodges.  Still this trail is a really good one.  So many trails have a destination in mind, be it a stand of old white pine or a lookout, and the rest of the hike is a pretty monotonous trek through the trees.  This hike had things to see around every corner, and lots of places to stop and look around.

After the hike, we had planned to go to the Portage Store restaurant for lunch, but it ended up being closed for renovations.  We were pretty starved by this point but we still stopped to take pictures of two more moose, then stopped at the Two River's Store for some food.  Even though the store's inventory was pretty sparse, it was a busy spot with lots of people getting ice cream.

After lunch, we headed back to the Mew Lake campground so we could hike to the waterfall and see what the water levels were like.  There was still lots of water, but nowhere near the amount of two weeks previous.  We headed further along the Highland Backpacking Trail to see how much evidence of flooding we could see.  And there was lots.  There was sand all over the trail that hadn't been there last summer.  There was a tree that had that sand embedded into it's bark a foot and a half up.  There were little brushy plants with that stringy dirty grass wrapped around their branches, you know the kind of thing you see in the spring in ditches after the water has dried up?  Keeping in mind the water level is usually at least 2-3 feet below the actual bank of the river, and the debris line was about chest level on my dad, it's pretty crazy to imagine the trail with that much water on it.  I'd say in that spot, the width of the river was probably 15-20 feet wider on both sides at it's peak.  Even before we got to the waterfall, we could see just how insane the flooding had been.  Two weeks ago, when we were walking along the Track and Tower section before it intersects with the Highland Trail, if you looked down the banks, you could see water.  Now that it's gone down, we looked down and you can't even see the river...there is a 10 foot drop off, and no water in sight, but two weeks ago, the water level was about 2-3 feet below the top of that drop off.

Part way on the drive back to the campsite, mum decided we should hike the Lookout Trail so I could take a few shots with the wide angle lens.  If you do the trail backwards, it's not very far, distance wise, to the cliff...but it's all up hill and very, very steep!  Dad and the kids didn't even get out of the truck.  Mum made it part way and said she'd wait for me...I swear I thought I was going to die.  It was hot and I'm not in the best of shape.  Thankfully I didn't take my whole camera bag, just the camera with the wide angle on it, and a bottle of water.  Was it worth it?  I got a few shots, but the sun was right in my face, so the sky and clouds were over exposed...but I'd do it again, with plans to be at the look out for the sunset...maybe.  Climbing back down that hill was hard enough in bright day light...after dark, might not be such a good idea.

Dinner that night was a feast.  We made fried rice, roasted veggies, quesadillas, and salad.  Everything was yummy and easy to make.  While we cleaned up, the kids took my camera and dad's spare and went for a walk.  My memory card had 1116 pictures on it when I got home.  I'm pretty sure more than half of them were shots Squatch took of the Canadian Geese, and the back of Bubbie's head.

Our next quest was to head down to Booth's Rock Trail's parking area and shoot the cliff in the fading sun.  It was pretty fun going from my 10-20mm lens, to dad's 400mm lens.  I was a little disappointed the trail wasn't open or I would have hiked it to get some shots from the top (not at dusk though...lots of stairs to come down in the semi-dark wouldn't be good either)

That night we finally had a fire and the kids got to roast marshmallows.  After they'd had their fill, mum threw in the Vulcan Magic fire pouches which make the flames turn different colours.  The kids loved that.  After full dark, Dad and I set up a little kiddie tent and took it down to the beach to attempt some night photography.  Not our most successful experiment.  I managed to get 2 shots before I couldn't get the camera to cooperate anymore.

It was cold that night and we ended up having to turn the heater on at about 3am.  Mum gave me a spare flannel fitted sheet and I was able to wrap myself in that inside my sleeping bag which helped way more than you'd think it would.  I was impressed.  I have two extra flannel top sheets at home (the fitted ones got ripped) so I will definitely sew them together to make a liner for our sleeping bag before we go on our next trip.

I didn't get up as early the next morning, but was still out and walking around the campground an hour before anyone else stirred.  We had banana pancakes, maple baked beans and bagels for breakfast, then went for a short drive towards the east gate looking for moose.  The best one was down the Opeongo Road, where mum spotted one on the far shore of a small lake.  We watched it swim across Costella Lake, come up on shore and walk down the road.  I've never seen one swimming in person like that and I was so excited I nearly fell out of the truck, the strap of my camera bag wrapped around my ankle, when I tried to get out to take a picture.  About 30 seconds further down the road, a deer jumped out in front of us.

After a quick stop at the visitor's centre to see how much of the view from the platform I could get in a shot with the new lens, we headed back to pack up everything and head home...with a brief stop at Henrietta's Bakery in Dwight for pastries and a drink.

Total moose seen during the trip: 9
Other wildlife: deer, gray jay, squirrel, black duck

EDIT: The next day, Chris's friend sent him a text from Algonquin.  He'd seen 22 moose in one trip through the park and back.  So jealous!